Love's Blind
by WriterCat97
Summary: Nine-year old Luke meets seven-year old Thalia. Madness, tragedy and true love result from that meeting. Gosh, I sound like a Disney movie trailer. Anyway, includes weird brothers, crazy kids and bad wolves. T for Thalia. I don't own PJO and never will. I also don't own the ad and review, it won't do you any harm young lass. Or lad.
1. Of Crazy Girls and Flying Babies

Chapter 1- Of Crazy Girls and Flying Babies

Luke was sitting at the table, doing his homework. Tavy, his younger brother, was sitting next to him, eating chocolate chip cookies. This obviously resulted in Luke giving up trying to guess which continent was Asia and instead start eating cookies with his brother. Just when he was about to grab the last cookie, someone knocked on the door. He instinctively looked in that direction, while Tavy made a grab for the last cookie and put it in his mouth. Luke looked back at the plate and, seeing it empty, turned to glare at his brother, who in turn stuck his tongue out at him.

-Knock, knock, KNOCK.

Luke got up quickly. It looked like someone was trying to knock down the door. He then remembered that said person had already knocked on the door once and was probably really upset about the fact that the door remained closed. Especially due to the fact that it was raining outside. Oops.

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Thalia was very wet, very tired and very upset. The fact that the door was still closed after she had knocked on it twice did nothing to change her mood. Oh wait, it looked like the door was opening. She glared at it like it was the cause of all her troubles.

A blond boy, about nine years old, was the person that opened the door. And which consequently was at the receiving end of Thalia's stare. He was about to apologise when he noticed exactly who was the person that had been knocking on the door. Which just happened to be a rather wet seven-year old girl wearing what must have once been a pretty pink dress before it had been covered with mud, carrying a blond baby, who was miraculously still asleep, and glaring at him like he had pushed her into a puddle of water and then ran away.

Before the boy could say anything, however, Thalia stormed in and placed the baby on the couch. Said baby had been covered by a light blue blanket and was therefore significantly less soaked than the girl. She then turned around to face the boy.

-Are you just going to stay there and get soaked? 'Cause I've just done that and it isn't as fun as you might think.

Luke, who had indeed forgotten to close the door (actually, he had been standing still ever since he opened the door), quickly closed it. The girl looked kind of familiar to him. In fact, he now remembered seeing her at school. However, they had never even spoken to each other and the girl was two years younger than him, so he had no idea what she was doing in his house.

-Who are you?

Luke didn't ask that question. It was asked by Tavy, who had just appeared from behind the couch. Three-year olds do that sometimes. You know, appear out of nowhere.

-Thalia Grace, Daughter of Zeus.

Oh, that explains quite a lot, thought Luke. The main reason he remembered Thalia was because she had once been thrown out of class for somehow electrocuting another girl. Which was weird, because before that incident Luke had considered her a girly kind of girl. (Electrocuting people didn't seem like a very girly thing to do in Luke's mind. Maybe the other girl had insulted her clothes and hairstyle? Luke filled it away under **Things to Think About Later**.) It also explained why she had randomly appeared at his house. Although how she had figured that Luke was a demigod and where he lived was a mystery to him.

-The pine tree?

Thalia looked at Tavy with a weird look in her face. Luke decided it was best to interrupt that conversation before Tavy started to tell Thalia how she would die. That's another thing three-year olds do sometimes. You know, prophesize people's dooms.

-What are you doing here?

-Oh, I was just singing in the rain with my baby brother when I saw your house and I thought "Well, ain't that a jolly good house" so I decided I would just pop by. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a nice warm bath. Watch Jason so that he doesn't do anything stupid like, you know, fly to the moon or something. Where's the bathroom by the way?

Before Luke could say anything, Tavy pointed towards the bathroom and Thalia, thanking Tavy with a nod of her head, went inside the bathroom. Luke sighed. Tavy just didn't see anything wrong with letting crazy seven-year old demigod girls take a bath in your bathroom, when they hadn't even been invited to your house in the first place.

-The baby's awake.

Luke turned to the couch, but he didn't see anything there. Not a waking baby, not a sleeping baby. He looked at his brother, wondering if he had picked the baby up when Luke wasn't looking despite barely managing to lift a cookie jar. Tavy was staring at the ceiling. Luke frowned and followed his gaze. A little blond baby was floating in the air, almost touching the ceiling, his little blanket held tight in his arms. He seemed quite pleased with himself. He also seemed to be drooling. On top of Luke. How much weirder could things get?

-Let's call him Fly.

Luke looked at his brother. Tavy was smiling as if someone had just given him a puppy as a birthday gift. Luke was about to explain to him all the reasons why he couldn't keep the baby when Tavy's eyes glowed green. He turned to stare at his brother and then, with a voice that was definitely not his, he spoke.

_-The Wolves are coming._

As soon as he said that, his eyes turned blue again. Tavy shivered and then went back to staring at Fly. Luke bit his lip and stared at his brother, a worried look on his face. It had been almost two months since the last of Tavy's, well, seizures. And some good four days since his month's last one. At least Tavy hadn't seemed to notice this one. Or maybe he had just learned not to care. He had seen it happen tons of times now, but it didn't make it any less scary. He would give anything so that his mother and brother would stop having these seizures.

-Jason, get down from the ceiling. Come here now, it's dinner time.

Luke turned around to see Thalia standing at the door of the living room/entrance, with her arms raised towards her baby brother. Wait, were those Luke's clothes she was wearing? He was just about to question her about that when his brother interrupted him. Luke was getting interrupted too many times this afternoon for his liking.

-His name is Fly now. -He informed Thalia.

Thalia paused, as if thinking about something. She then smiled.

-Fly is a cool name. We'll call him Fly from now on. We need to do a baptizing ceremony first though.

Tavy's eyes lit up at the word "ceremony". He quickly ran to his bedroom, no doubt in search of ingredients for the ceremony. Luke hoped he wasn't going to cook the baby. He turned to look at Thalia

-Why are you wearing my clothes?

-Well, it's not like I had anything else to wear, is it?

-What about the dress you were wearing?

-It's dirty. And wet. Plus, I threw it away.

-Why?

-Because it was dirty. And wet. Plus, I really hate dresses and fancy hairstyles.

-Then why are you always wearing them?

-Because of my mom. She's obsessed with clothes and alcoholic drinks. Which is why I am going to live with you from now on.

Luke looked surprised.

-But won't your mom notice?

-Nope. She just notices clothes, not people. Talking about moms, where is yours? Is she sleeping?

Luke nodded.

-She's really nice, I bet she'll like you. Why did you come here of all places though?

Thalia smiled.

-Well, I didn't really know where I was going when I ran away but after a few houses I saw yours and it looked nice and comfy. Plus, there were little statues of greek monsters in the lawn so I figured that you must be a demigod too. And then when you opened your door I recognised you from school. Who's your godly parent, by the way?

Luke was surprised. Thalia had noticed him at school?

-Hermes. Also legacy of Apollo, which means my great grandfather was Apollo.

Thalia smiled.

-Pleasure to meet you, Luke son of Hermes.

-The pleasure's all mine, Thalia daughter of Zeus.

They shook hands.

-Now, if I'm not mistaken we have a baptizing ceremony to attend. Better hurry or we'll miss all the fun.


	2. Worry, Worry, Worry

**I don't own PJO or HOO and everybody knows that. Except maybe my dog. I'm not quite sure she knows that.**

**Chapter 2- Worry, Worry,Worry**

"Luke, are you even listening to me?"

"Of course I am, Mark. You were just telling me about the Pokémon card you just won from David."

"It's not Pokémon, it's Mythomagic. And, you know what, I'll just go talk to Jack. At least he actually _listens_ to me when I talk."

Luke watched as his friend stormed away from him, going to talk to a dark haired boy instead. He sighed. He had been paying less attention to school and his friends lately. But it wasn't his fault. There were just so many things going on in his life right now. Most importantly, his mom's and Tavy's seizures were becoming more frequent. His mom hadn't gone to work for almost two weeks now. This meant less money, less food and fewer pills. That was kind of ironic. The times when his mother really needed the pills were the times when she couldn't afford them. If she didn't get better soon, he would have to steal again.

The fact that Thalia and Fly were living with them didn't make the problems any smaller. If anything, it just made them bigger. More people to feed, for instance. Thalia refused to wear any more dresses. That led to a shopping trip, which led to more money being spent. In her defense, Thalia bought few clothes, and they were mostly cheap. Black shirts and pants for the most part. She seemed to like black.

Another good thing about Thalia: she cared for her brother. Changed diapers, feed him and put him to sleep. Luke didn't know that other people cared for their brothers like that. It was usually their mothers that did most of the caring. Then again, Thalia had said that their mother hadn't cared much for them beyond making sure that they wore pretty clothes.

She also wasn't as freaked out by his brother's seizures as other people might be. That could be due to the fact that she had a flying baby brother. Still, the money was running short. Luke dreaded the thought of having to steal again. Especially because of what had happened the last time. He had got caught and had had to return all of the things he had stolen. At least they hadn't arrested him or his mom.

The school bell rang. Recess was over. Luke got up from the swing he had been sitting on and walked back to class, still thinking about what he would have to do if his mom didn't get better. On the way to the classroom, Mark shoved him towards the wall. Luke was distracted, so he fell down, hitting his head on the wall. Mark and Jack laughed. Had that happened any other time he would have punched them both in the face. He couldn't afford to have any problems now though, so he just glared at them. He just wished that the seizures would stop.

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Thalia wasn't dumb. She had noticed when her mom's situation had started going bad. She had also noticed when her mom had gotten pregnant with Jason. And she had noticed both these things before the drinking and big tummy had started. Therefore, she definitely noticed that there was something wrong at the Castellan's.

There had been less food, though still enough for the five of them to cope. Tavy's and Mrs. Castellan's visions had also become more frequent. Luke also seemed more absent and sad, though he tried to hide that from her. She had seen him letting those kids push him. He had a big problem on his mind.

She was quite sure she knew what the problem was. Money. It's always money. How to solve that problem was the real question. When that had happened at her mom's house, she had always sold something she had found on her house and thought that might be valuable. She had become a good dealer, which is a strange thing for seven-year old girls to be. However, she couldn't just sell something from Luke's house. That would be stealing.

However, if she couldn't sell a valuable thing she found laying around, then what could she sell? She pondered that problem during math class, twirling her hair as she thought. That helped her concentrate. Her hair was the one thing both her and her mom liked. Long, straight and dark. Good for twirling and waving around in rhythm with the music. When the history class started, Thalia's face lit up. She had just had an idea.

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Luke and Thalia happened to have gym at the same hour that day. Thalia had asked Luke if he could pick up Jason after school today, because there was something she needed to do. Luke had nodded, too busy thinking about Tavy to bother asking Thalia what she was going to do. That was why he was at the school Tavy and Fly attended at three thirty that afternoon. He greeted Tavy's teacher and told her that Tavy hadn't come due to a cold. She had said she hoped he would be better soon and he thanked her.

Luckily for him, they had told Fly's sister the general lie about he and Thalia being cousins. That plus the fact that the teacher knew him from when Tavy had been one year old had helped him pick up Fly without any problems.

When he arrived home, the first thing he did was check on Tavy. His little brother was asleep, tears on his eyes. Well, at least he was asleep. Talking about sleeping, Fly looked like he was about to fall asleep any moment now. Luke took him to his crib and laid him down on the crib that had been Tavy's. He smiled. Fly looked so peaceful.

Tavy woke up a few minutes later, and he insisted in going outside to play. He looked well enough, so Luke let him. He heard Tavy speaking to someone outside and caught the words "pine tree". He smiled. Tavy had been calling Thalia that ever since they had met. Luke took out his schoolbooks and started doing his homework. A few moments later the door opened.

"Hey Thals."

"Hey Lucky"

Luke rolled his eyes.

"So, what is it that you did today instead of picking Fly up?"-he asked, without looking up from his homework.

It was Thalia's turn to roll her eyes.

"Well, maybe if you looked at me you would know."

Luke raised his eyes to look at Thalia. Her hair had been cut short, shorter than his. She was smiling a shy smile, a rare one to see in Thalia's face. Luke's mouth fell open.

"What happened to your hair?"

Thalia rolled her eyes again.

"It's in the laundry, washing."

Luke ignored the sarcasm.

"Why did you cut your hair?"

Thalia made a sad face. Luke couldn't tell whether she was faking it or not.

"You don't think I look pretty like this?"-she said with a really childish voice.

"No, you look great, it's just…"

"I know you need money, so I decided to sell my hair. It was worth quite a lot, mind you."

Luke did a very good imitation of a fish.

"But, your hair…You didn't need to…"

"It's okay, I never really liked it anyway"-she lied-"Besides, it'll grow back. Consider it my rent."-she smiled.

Luke looked like he wanted to say something, but before he could say anything, Tavy screamed.

"Wolf!"

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**Little cliffhanger there for you. ****Sorry if the chapter was a bit boring, but it was kind of a filler. You can't just have life-or-death situations in all your chapters. It's the calm before the storm. Anyway, hope you liked it. Review please, reviews make me happy.**

**WriterCat97**


	3. The Boy Who Cried Wolf

**Chapter 3- The Boy Who Cried Wolf**

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Thalia looked at Luke, a worried look on her face. Luke just looked annoyed.

"That's his normal voice, not the, um, weird voice he does when he's not well. He really likes wolves too. I thought you already knew that. His room is filled with them. He's probably just playing."

Now it was Thalia's turn to look annoyed. Of course she knew that Tavy liked wolves, she just thought it was weird when kids shouted "Wolf!" randomly. She was about to say something, when Fly started crying. Gods, she had started calling him Fly in her head now. She glared at Luke and ran upstairs, towards her brother's room.

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Tavy was sitting on the ground, writing on the earth.

S.P.Q.R

He didn't know why he was writing those letters. They didn't even spell out a word. He just liked them for some unknown reason. Just like he liked wolves. Talking about wolves, he was also playing with his favorite stuffed animal, Remo. Which was obviously a wolf.

He was so busy writing that he didn't notice when the wolf approached him. In fact, he only noticed that when the wolf growled quietly. Tavy's head shot up as soon as he heard that. The word "Wolf" was out of his mouth before he realized what he was saying. He didn't sound scared. Just amazed. He was staring at a real life wolf.

The wolf poked him with his nose and started walking away. After a few steps it stopped and looked back at Tavy, growling impatiently. Tavy got up immediately and started following the wolf. After all, it wasn't everyday that a wolf invited you to follow him.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Luke had stopped doing his homework around the time that Fly had stopped crying. Now he was just beating his pencil on the table to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". He got bored after four minutes. Stupid ADHD. Thalia hadn't come down yet. She was either still mad at him or too busy taking care of her baby brother. Luke sighed. Screw homework. He was going outside to play with Tavy.

He couldn't find Tavy at first. In fact, it took him almost one minute to spot him. He was almost a hundred meters away, walking besides some unknown person in what looked like a grey cloak. Luke panicked. His brother was being kidnaped. What he did next was totally instinct. He grabbed a nearby rock, a rather big and pointy rock too, and started running in his brother's direction.

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"Blackbird singing in the dead of niiight... take this broken wings and learn to flyyy."

Thalia was cradling Fly in her arms while he sang. He had stopped crying a long time ago, but he still wouldn't fall asleep. Thalia sighed and put him back in the cradle, which had been Tavy's before Fly had arrived. She sat down and stared at her brother. He stared back at her.

"I'm going to keep staring at you until you fall asleep, you know."

Fly just stared back at her. Then he drooled on his blanket. Then he stared at the closet. Then back at Thalia. Then at the closet again. Back to Thalia. Closet. Thalia. More drooling. Thalia gave up. She cleaned the saliva from Fly's face and went towards the closet. Her brother watched her anxiously as she walked up and opened the closet's door. And saw clothes inside. She rolled her eyes and was just about to close the door when she saw something sparkle from behind some dresses. She reached her hand out very carefully and grabbed the sparkling object. Thalia's eyes widened. She was holding what looked like an ancient Greek bronze spear. Fly laughed gleefully from behind her.

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The excitement of having met a wolf was starting to wear off. Tavy was starting to get a bit bored and a bit tired and a bit scared. Still, he didn't want to disappoint the wolf, so he kept walking. And walking. And walking. Until Remo fell from his hand. He bent down to pick him up, and the wolf growled at him. He seemed rather impatient. Tavy, who was very much scared right now, pretended not to hear him (or her, it could be a she-wolf) and picked up Remo. At that moment, a lot of things happened at once.

The wolf stepped forward and bit the hand that was holding Remo. Before he could shout out in pain, something came flying and hit the wolf, knocking him down. Said thing started fighting the wolf. That's when Tavy realized that the "thing" was his brother. And that he was fighting a rather angry grown wolf with nothing but a rock. That's when he screamed. Loudly.

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Thalia was still staring at the spear in amazement when she heard the scream. She recognized it as Tavy's immediately. Apparently so did Fly, because he started crying as soon as he heard the scream. If there was one thing that Thalia didn't stand it was little kids crying or screaming in that I-just-fell-from-that-tree-and-it-hurts kind of way. Besides, Tavy was one of the few people she actually liked. Therefore, after making sure that Fly was safe, she ran outside and followed the sound of the screaming.

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Tavy had screamed for almost one whole minute and was now apparently in state of shock. He couldn't draw his eyes away from the fight, even after the bleeding and screaming had started. It was Luke that did all the screaming and bleeding. The wolf just growled and attacked, apparently unhurt. He would have stood there, unmoving, until the wolf killed his brother and then him if it wasn't for Thalia.

He didn't even see her coming. He just remembered her pushing him away and telling him to run, the panic visible in her eyes. He remembered running away, far, far away. He ran until he couldn't run anymore and then he fell down and cried himself to sleep, dreaming of the look on Thalia's eyes and the his brother screaming as if the wolf had been tearing him in half.

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Thalia turned to look at the fight as soon as Tavy started running. For a moment she too was paralyzed with shock and fear. However it took only a few seconds for her to remember that if she didn't do anything, Luke would die. That made her more scared than before. But not with the paralyzing kind of fear. More like the stabbing-wolves-in-the-back-with-an-ancient-bronze-spear kind of fear.

As soon as she stabbed the monster (for it had now become a monster in the minds of all three children) it began screaming. That scream and the shock of having stabbed a living creature made Thalia step back, which caused her to fall. The wolf turned on her, fangs bared, identifying its attacker and ready to counterattack. At that moment, however, a rock flew towards the wolf and hit it, causing it to fall against another rock with a yelp and black out.

Thalia got the rock that had hit the wolf and started hitting the wolf with it until she was sure it was dead. Then she stared at it, her brain still trying to comprehend what had happened. That was when she heard a pained moan from behind the wolf. Luke was lying on the ground, covering his face with his hands. His clothes were torn and covered with blood.

"Luke?"- Her voice was shaking.

"Thalia? Are you all right? Where's-"

That was how far he got before shouting in pain and curling up in a ball. Thalia panicked. She looked around the street to see if anyone was there. A few grown-ups were standing around, staring at them in shock. She screamed at them. Why hadn't they helped? A woman got her phone and dialed nine one one. Another person, Thalia couldn't tell whether it was a man or woman, her vision was getting blurry, approached Luke. Thalia growled at it, moving towards Luke to protect him. She heard the person saying something, but only caught the word "doctor". She relaxed and let the person approach him. She fancied she heard a siren before blanking out.

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** And so ends chapter 3. I hope you liked it. Sorry for all the violence in this chapter, but a demigod's life ain't just flowers and sunshine. I can promise you that Luke won't die in the next chapter. Or the one after that. Or will he? (Insert failed attempt at doing an evil laugh here) Anyway, read and review please.**

**Lahlahland: I will, be patient.**

** : Deal.**


	4. Take These Sunken Eyes and Learn to See

Chapter 4 – Take These Sunken Eyes and Learn to See

Luke was lying in a bed when he woke up. His face hurt. His arm hurt. Everything hurt. He laid still for a moment, just breathing. Why was he here? All he could remember was a wolf.

A wolf. All the memories of what had happened came back. He was probably on a hospital bed. Where was Tavy though? Was he safe? What about Thalia and Fly? Well, if you want to know that maybe you should start by opening your eyes, said a little voice in his head. Luke glared mentally at that voice. Stupid voices. Maybe he was going crazy. Or maybe he was dead.

That was something he hadn't considered before. Was he dead? He hadn't heard anything since he had wakened. Or maybe he had gone deaf. Yeah, that was a bit more likely. Wasn't death supposed to be painless? The voice inside his head coughed. Oh right, he was supposed to have opened his eyes.

Luke tried doing that. He still couldn't see anything. And now his face hurt even more. That made him realize that there was something on his face. Some kind of plaster, probably. That damn stuff was covering his eyes. He instinctively raised his arm to try to take that thing off his face. That was a Very Bad Idea. His arm had started hurting like Hades the moment Luke had tried to move it and, worse of all, it hadn't moved an inch. Luke groaned.

That was when the sounds came back. He heard himself groaning, the beeping of the hospital machines and the wind blowing outside the window. He also heard a chair scrape and somebody stand up.

-Luke?

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Lupa was having a really bad week. The last five pups had been too weak and had had to be sacrificed. She hated when that happened. And the Legion wasn't doing very well. They really needed some new, dedicated and brave pups. Not unlike her pack, Lupa thought. She sighed. Some new wolves, barely out of puppyhood, had joined her back recently. Some seemed quite promising, like Maia for example. Others, like Maugrim, were a disappointment.

She shook her head. Never had this happened before in her pack. A wolf seriously harming a Child of Rome when the child in question had done nothing to prove himself a coward. In fact, fighting a wolf to prevent it from harming your brother was, however stupid, considered brave. The smaller cub had done nothing wrong too. Still, he was now traumatized. There was no use taking it in and trying to raise him like all the other cubs. That child was probably scared of death of wolves now. And not without reason. Lupa sighed again.

At least Maugrim wouldn't do anything stupid like that again. He was dead now. That Greek girl, the daughter of Zeus, had killed him. She, Lupa thought, was quite brave. It would be wonderful if her roman brother inherited her courage.

Lupa stopped in her tracks. She could hear breathing, human breathing. The she-wolf looked at the small boy, still hugging that stuffed animal, sound asleep. Lupa found it weird how people could love inanimate things. Quietly as always, she dropped the letter she had been holding in her mouth by the little kid's side. That had been a recommendation letter from a boy that had not been brave enough. It was kind of like an apology gift from the wolves. It wouldn't serve the kid anyway if he failed his quest.

Seeing as it was not fit to train him the way they normally trained cubs, Lupa was giving the boy a kind of quest. He would have to reach Camp Jupiter with no training. Of course, she wasn't going to let him go on his own. Larentia, one of her wolves, would accompany him in human form. That would help prevent him from going back to his brother or getting murdered too easily. She could also train him along the way.

Lupa howled a deep musical howl. Not too loud though, she didn't want to wake the cub. A she-wolf, about four and a half years old, came from the woods. Lupa told her of her quest and she accepted it. She then looked at the sleeping boy and smiled. Larentia had always liked cubs.

Lupa growled softly and then scratched the ground three times. A young human girl of about 33 years of age was standing in front of her. Her hair was short and dark brown, the color her fur had been. She bowed to Lupa and smiled, thanking her silently. Lupa handed her a backpack full of basic supplies. Larentia took it and thanked her, then sat down and started stroking the cub's hair. Lupa left them, turning around to look at the sleeping cub one last time.

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Thalia was sitting at the table in Luke's house, staring angrily at the plate of chocolate chip cookies in front of her. Her life sucked. First of all, Tavy was gone. Probably dead. No, scratch that. Dead for sure. And Fly had been crying almost all the time ever since Tavy had disappeared. Then there was Luke.

The doctors seemed to think that Luke was really lucky. According to them, a person that had gotten into a fight with a wolf and lived with all limbs in place was a rather lucky person. Thalia disagreed. Luke had cuts everywhere, and two particularly nasty ones on his left leg and arm. Oh, and had she mentioned that that arm had been broken too? And that was only neck down.

Luke had actually been kicked out of school for scaring kids. Of course, the headmistress hadn't put it that way, but it was obvious that that was what she meant. "This school is not suitable for visually impaired children" my ass, thought Thalia. She had actually shouted that at the headmistress. That was why she had also gotten expelled.

Thalia glanced at Luke. He was sitting next to her, breaking his cookies into tiny pieces. He had also broken one tooth, so the doctors had advised him to break his food into small pieces before eating it. His left arm was in a cast, which looked very clinical due to the lack of good luck messages written on it. His one good eye was staring at the window. He looked very absent and sad, thought Thalia. Especially with that eye patch and scar running down the side of his face. He was probably thinking about all their problems.

Thalia also had more things to think about. Despite the fact that she hadn't actually got hurt, the doctors had decided to inform her mother of the wolf attack. Now, surely to maintain a caring mother image for the press, she was interrupting her tour, which was going to end in three days anyway, to come back and "care for her little babies". The idea of having to go back to seeing her drunken mother on a daily basis and having to wear pretty dresses again made Thalia want to puke.

As she had said before, her life sucked.

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Thalia woke up at five o'clock that morning. There was no danger in setting an alarm because her mother was a heavy sleeper. She yawned and then got out of bed. She had gone to sleep dressed in black clothes and wearing her favorite black boots. Thalia spit at the yellow dress that her mother had picked out for her during the tour and decided that she would wear to her first day back at school. Yeah, apparently Thalia's mom had paid the headmistress to let Thalia go back to school.

Thalia stopped in front of her brother's bedroom and went inside. He was sound asleep in his crib. She smiled and kissed his forehead. He was too young to run away. It would just slow them down and put him in danger. It was better for him to stay here. She promised herself that she would come back in a few years for her brother when he was old enough. For now he would just have to stay there.

She grabbed the backpack filled with supplies she had left by the door and went outside. The night seemed silent and filled with dangers. Thalia shook that thought out of her head. If she was going to be a coward then there was no use going. Besides, the wolf attack had been at 2:30 p.m. on a rather sunny day. Thalia started running to Luke's house, enjoying the feeling of the wind against her face.

Luke wasn't waiting for her outside the door like they had planned. That was strange. Thalia worried for a few seconds, but then remembered that this was a boy she was talking about. Boys were always late. She decided she would go inside and wait for him sitting on the couch. The little stuffed monsters looked a bit scary by moonlight.

Thalia sat on the couch and waited. She soon got impatient. Where the Hades was Luke? He should have come down already. She looked at the corridor that leads to his room. It seemed like a rather scary place to walk through when it was dark. She stared at it for a few minutes before deciding that she would be a bit braver after she had eaten a chocolate chip cookie.

She turned on the lights as soon as she arrived at the kitchen and closed the door. There were no windows there so there was no danger of anyone wondering about the strange light. She started walking to the cupboard where she knew that Mrs. Castellan kept the cookies when something on top if the table caught her eye. It was a piece of paper.

_Dear Thalia,_

_First of all, I would like to apologize. I know that you really wanted to come with me and that you can take care of yourself perfectly well. But I don't want you to get hurt. I don't want you to die like Tavy did. I would never forgive myself if I knew that I had been the cause of your death, just like I will never forgive myself for being the cause of Tavy's. _

_I can't stay here anymore. What am I supposed to do now that Tavy is gone? Lay in bed like an invalid all day__?__ I don't want to be a burden for you. I don't want to be a burden to anyone actually. That is why I am leaving. I don't need to worry too much about my mom. My dad will take care of her. It's one of the only good things he ever does. _

_I love you Thalia. Please remember that. I love you more than I have ever loved another person in the world, except for Tavy. That is why I want you to be safe. Please don't try to follow me Thals. I hope that we will meet again someday._

_Yours Always,_

_ Luke_

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** Sniff, sniff. I actually made myself sad with that. I hope you guys liked it. This, I believe, is the longest and best chapter I have written yet. Please do forgive the long wait. It's just that school just started and the tests are just around the corner. (I know what you're thinking, "Who the Hades has school in July****?****" I do** **unfortunately) I will try to update as soon as possible though. Don't worry, I won't abandon this story.**

** The song that Thalia sung to Fly on the last chapter and the chapter title are both lyrics from the song "Blackbird" by The Beatles. Talking about that, I've put up a poll on my profile. I want to know if you guys want me to change the title of this story to "Blackbird", "Bad Wolf" or if you just want me to leave it "Love's Blind". Please do vote and review guys. It won't take much of my time and it would really help me. **

** Sorry for the long AN and please vote and review guys! **

** WriterCat97**

**PS: First person to guess who all the wolves are named after wins! Google allowed.**


	5. Of Little Girls and Birthday Cakes

Chapter 5- Of Little Girls and Birthday Cakes

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**Due anni doppo…**

**Dois anos depois…**

**Two years later...**

**Dos años despúes…**

**Deux ans après…**

A picnic. Thalia's mom had decided to take her and Jason to the woods for a picnic. Why? She wasn't exactly the kind of mom who took her children to family trips. She wasn't even the kind of mom that cared about her children. Well, besides making sure that they looked pretty for the press. Thalia laughed mentally at that thought. Her mom's career had sunk long ago. There hadn't been a single reporter or paparazzi looking for Mrs. Grace for months now. And still, despite everything, she still cared about how her children looked. Thalia supposed that her mom did that in hope that one day she would be famous again. After all, everyone needed to dream.

That still didn't explain the picnic though. Did her mom think that the paparazzi would take notice of her again if she took her children on a picnic? No, that didn't make any sense. Maybe she really does want to spend some time with her children, a little voice in the back of Thalia's head told her. Thalia's hopes went up before she could do anything to stop them. That's not true, she told herself, remember what happened the last time you left Jason alone with her. She looked at the scar on her brother's mouth, a reminder that her mother shouldn't be trusted. However, the hopes, once raised, would not fall back down again. Thalia looked at her mother, carefully setting the plastic plates and forks on the picnic sheet, and decided to give her a second chance.

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Luke was sitting on the floor, cutting an apple with a knife. Neither the knife or the apple were his. He had stolen both of them. Just like the old times, he told himself. Stealing to feed his family. Luke looked at the apple. He had cut it in three pieces, a bigger one for Tavy, a medium one for his mother and a smaller one for him. He stared at the pieces in surprise and then started shaking his head. No, he didn't have any family to feed now. It was just him. He ate the three pieces as fast as he could and then leaned against a wall. He should rest, or otherwise he would go crazy. That is, if he hadn't already.

Luke looked at a clothes shop. It was doing some kind of sale, he thought. He squinted for a few minutes and then frowned. Oh joy. It was Father's Day again. That day was very high on the list of days he hated the most. He glared at the shop as if it was Hermes. Glare, glare, glare.

-Hi Mr. Pirate!

Luke turned around to see a little girl looking at him. She waved when she saw him. Luke grabbed the knife with his right hand and then pulled his sleeve down to cover his hand, so that it looked that he had a knife instead of a hand. He waved at the girl with his knife-hand. The little girl giggled.

The giggling made the girl's mom turn around to look at her. Luke quickly hid the hand that was holding the knife behind his back. The mom looked at Luke and frowned. He knew he didn't look very presentable with his dirty and torn clothes, his unwashed hair and his eye patch. And the fact that he was hiding something behind his back and that the little girl had been laughing at him a few seconds ago just made him more suspicious in the eyes of the girl's mother.

She quickly grabbed her daughter's hand and led her away from Luke. The little girl told her that he was a pirate, to which her mom told her to speak less loudly, not to bother people and that the boy was just wearing an eye patch so that people would pity him and give him money. The girl asked if she could have some money to give to him then. Luke didn't hear what her mother replied to that because they had entered a shop. The shop with the Father's Day sale. That made Luke remember Hermes, which caused him to glare at the shop again.

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Luke had first heard of Hermes when he was five. His school was celebrating Father's Day. Luke had asked his mom where his daddy was and she had told him all about the Greek and Roman gods. Neither his classmates nor his teacher had believed him, obviously. That didn't bother him very much though. It just meant that his classmates were stupid. Everything his mom told him was true.

Things started going bad right after Tavy was born. His mom started going crazy, her eyes glowing green and a voice that was not hers speaking to him. He had been scared. He also had to care for Tavy alone for his first weeks of live. Luke had been the person to name Tavy. His full name was Octavian Castellan. He had found that name on a book about Romans that his mom had given him. Those times, Tavy's first weeks, were really hard. He prayed for his dad to help him. Hermes didn't help him though. He had to cope for himself.

Since then he had learned to take care of things himself. He took care of Tavy and his mom and the house. His mom would help him most of the time. She sewed little stuffed Greek monsters and sold them to people. Sometimes she worked at a pharmacy too. Those were The Good Days. They were quite rare.

Most of the time the days were so-so. His mom would occasionally have "seizures" and her eyes would glow green and the strange words would come. She was too sick to work at the pharmacy those days. All the money they had they got selling the Greek monsters. Those never failed them. His mom would sew one every two weeks and then Luke would sell them on the internet. Somebody always bought them. Most of the time, the buyers were two people called "george_likes_rats" and "martha_snake". Luke liked those people, just like he liked the little monsters.

And then there were The Bad Days. His mom's "seizures" were so frequent that she couldn't sew any more monsters and instead spent all day home blabbering nonsense and making chocolate-chip cookies and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. Tavy would also have "seizures". Luke and Tavy would then have to drop school and Luke would have to steal to survive again. The Bad Days didn't happen very often, but there were still more Bad Days than Good Days.

Luke had been seven when he had understood what the "seizures" meant. His mom and his little brother could see the future and it scared them. All the fairy stories said that knowing your future was dangerous, but Luke couldn't help but hear when his mom and Tavy spoke to him. He learned a lot of things that way.

He classified everything he knew under Not So Harmful and Very Harmful. Under Not So Harmful, for example, there was a pine tree, a boy with green eyes, a girl with blond curls and _graecus_, which he had discovered was Latin for "Greeks". Under Very Harmful, there was Kronos, whom he had looked up in the library and found out that was not at all nice; the word Traitor, which he knew was meant for him for some strange reason. He supposed that must be the little bit of future-telling he had in his blood. There was one more thing filed under Very Harmful. It was a date. 18 of August, to be precise. It was the date of his death.

Hermes never helped, no matter how bad the Bad Days got. Luke had gone from idolizing him to being disappointed in him, to not trusting him and finally to hating him. He hated Hermes so much that he had once almost gotten expelled by handing the teacher a piece of paper with all the swear words he could find as his school project on Hermes. The teacher had somehow forgotten everything the next day.

Hermes hadn't even helped when Tavy had died. That was when Luke had started to really _really_ hate him. He vowed that he would kill Hermes if he ever met him.

The little girl and her mom had left the shop and were walking back home. Luke waved at her, but the little girl ignored him. She was looking at a cloud in a way that made it obvious that she was ignoring him. Her mother dropped a few coins next to him as she passed. Luke gave her a confused look, but she ignored it. When they were both about to turn a corner, the little girl turned back to look at Luke. She looked scared and sorry. But mostly scared.

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One thing that hadn't changed about her mom, Thalia thought, she was still very bad at remembering things. Who the Hades forgets the cake at a picnic birthday? Thalia knew that she shouldn't complain though. At least her mom had remembered Jason's birthday. She hadn't expected her to remember that. She never did. And maybe she had just asked Thalia to get the cake because she was preparing some surprise for her. Thalia smiled. She was finding it really easy to be optimistic today.

Thalia finally found the cake. It was a carrot cake covered with chocolate. Her eyes widened. That was her favorite cake. How did her mom know that that was her favorite cake? Maybe her mom was not so bad after all. Thalia carefully picked up the cake and was just about to go back to her mom and brother when she heard it. A wolf howling.

She dropped the cake on the ground and started running towards the picnic as fast as she could. Her mind started replaying scenes from the wolf attack that killed Tavy while she ran. She couldn't let Jason die. Jason couldn't die. Gods no, please don't let Jason die.

She suddenly arrived at the picnic. There was food thrown all over the place, her mom was sitting against a tree, crying and there was no sign of either Jason or of the wolves. Thalia grabbed a butter knife that was lying close to her feet and then stood still. There was no howling or sound of wolf paws. She also hadn't heard Jason crying and there wasn't a single drop of blood… Thalia turned around and pointed the knife at her mom.

-Where's Jason? What have you done to him?

Her voice was shaking and sparkles were flying from the knife she was holding, but she didn't notice. She really loved Jason and couldn't stand seeing him hurt, much less dead. Her mother didn't answer her, she just continued to cry. Thalia poked her with the knife.

-I'm sorry… they came…the wolves…there was nothing I could do…they took him…they took my baby…

She was sobbing at every other word. As soon as she finished speaking, Thalia slapped her in the face. That surprised both her and her mom, but Thalia couldn't take it anymore. Her mother had never cared for Jason, had never done anything to prevent him from getting hurt, and now she had just stood there and watched the wolves kill him. And she still had the nerve of calling Jason her baby. Jason wasn't her baby, he was Thalia's baby.

There was no blood here. Maybe the wolves had taken Jason somewhere else to…Maybe Jason was still alive, she told herself. Thalia got up and started running into the forest, knife in hand, looking for Jason. However, there was no sign of him or the wolves anywhere. Still, she looked for him. She looked for him for hours; she looked for him until realization hit her. Jason, like Tavy, was gone. She would never see him again. Her little baby was gone and there was nothing she could do.

She sat down and started to cry. At least Luke had fought with the wolf; at least he had done all he could to prevent it from killing his brother. Thalia had done nothing. In fact, she had just as well killed Tavy. She had told him to run when he would have been much safer by her side. Wolfs always travel in packs. There must have been wolves waiting for Tavy just inside the forest. And now they had come and killed her brother too. She was a complete failure. What right had she to complain about her mom when she was no better at taking care of Jason?

She stayed there, crying, until dark. She then got up and walked home, lying in bed with her clothes still on and her face still wet with tears. Tomorrow she was going to do what she should have done two years ago. Run away.

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**That chapter had over 2 thousand words****? Wow, it seemed so short. Hope you people enjoyed it. More chapters will be coming soon. Not to soon though. I have a test onWednesday. Still, I will post the next chapter at max next Sunday, maybe sooner if you review ¨hint¨ ¨hint¨. By the way, congrats to Germany for winning the World Cup! You played really well.**

** Thank you SetFireToTheRainbow, your review is probably the best thing I have read\heard all day. It makes me really happy to know you like my story. Love you too.**

** So, please review this story if you like it guys, it makes me happier and it also makes me write faster. Good day to all of you!**

** WriterCat97 **


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